There he was at his favorite Joe's Crab Shack restaurant on Sunday night, the Houston Rockets big man chewing on his favorite seafood fare and trying to take in the end of the NBA Finals like the other 22.4 million people who tuned in down the stretch. But as the San Antonio Spurs pulled away and LeBron James' Miami Heat saw their three-peat pursuit coming to a close, Howard had to pull away too.

"I started eating, and as the game started dwindling down, I was just sick," Howard, whose 2009 trip to the Finals with the Orlando Magic was the closest he came to winning it all, told USA TODAY Sports. "I just couldn't eat no more. I just walked up out of the restaurant and got in the car. It was tough. I saw LeBron, just how he sat on the bench. It was so tough. I've been there in that position where you're watching the other team celebrate, and you worked so hard to get there and you know the other team is just clicking on all cylinders. It was really, really hard to watch.

"I was happy for Tim (Duncan). I was happy for Kawhi Leonard. But it was just extremely hard to get up there and watch, so I just had to get up and get out. I was pretty much mad for the whole night."

The problem, you see, was that there were no Larry O'Brien trophies on the menu. The 28-year-old Howard is hungrier than ever for a title of his own.

He's hoping to get some help when free agency begins July 1 and some of the biggest names in the game – from LeBron James to Carmelo Anthony and right on down the line – are pitched on the proposition of joining Howard and James Harden in Houston. The organization's recruiting efforts will be aggressive and expansive as always, just as they were when they landed Howard last July and his decision to leave Los Angeles meant the Rockets had two-thirds of the Big Three that they had envisioned. Now comes Part III of their plan.

It's a complicated endeavor, with the Rockets needing to trade center Omer Asik and point guard Jeremy Lin in order to make room for another star-caliber salary, but things have a funny way of working out when transcendent talents decide that you're their pick for the proverbial prom. There are sales pitches like this one being refined all over the league – from Chicago (where injury-plagued Bulls point guard Derrick Rose recently announced, with impeccable timing, that he's 100% and ready to roll) to LA (where the Lakers are widely known to be holding off on hiring a coach just in case said free agents consider coming their way) to Miami (where they were plotting James retention plans and possible upgrades long before the Finals ended) to New York (where new Knicks president Phil Jackson was paid $12 million a year for times like these) and so many places in between. The possible caliber of this free agent crop has everything to do with it.

GALLERY: Dwight Howard through the years

Dwight Howard is with the Rockets now, but that came amid a long journey. Flip through this gallery to see how the superstar center landed in Houston.. (Photo: Troy Taormina, USA TODAY Sports)

Howard, particularly early in his career, was criticized for his lack of finesse on the offense end. Here, he bulldozes past Hawks center Jason Collier as a rookie Nov. 26, 2004. (Photo: Gregory Smith, AP)

Howard developed his rebounding skill at an early age, averaging a double-double as a 19-year-old rookie. He led the NBA in rebounds per game four times in his final five seasons with the Magic. (Photo: Eric Gay, AP)

Before being beset by injuries in recent seasons, Howard was one of the most reliable big men in the NBA. He played all 82 games in each of his first four seasons and only missed seven in his first seven combined. (Photo: Paul Connors, AP)

Shaquille O'Neal didn't shown much respect to Howard as a player and still doesn't as an analyst. Both were No. 1 picks by the Magic who then went to the Lakers, both centers known for their strength and athleticism, both Superman enthusiasts. (Photo: Greg M. Cooper, USA TODAY Sports)

The Magic brought back Hedo Turkoglu in 2011 with hopes of keeping Howard, but they never quite found the same page they had been on during their five seasons together from 2004 through 2009. (Photo: Chuck Burton, AP)

After months of speculation, the Magic dealt Howard to the Lakers in a four-team August 2012 trade. The Lakers gave up center Andrew Bynum for him, while the Magic received a package of players including former 76ers center Nikola Vucevic and Nuggets guard Arron Afflalo. (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports)

Howard and point guard Steve Nash joined the Lakers in the 2012 offseason but spent much of the first half of the season unable to play together because of injuries. (Photo: Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports)

Howard signed with the Rockets in the 2013 offseason after rejecting the Lakers and several other suitors. One reason was James Harden, the promising shooting guard whom he pairs so well with. (Photo: Troy Taormina, USA TODAY Sports)

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James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have the ability to opt out of their Heat contracts, and Bosh would certainly be on the Rockets' short list of targets should James decide to head elsewhere. Should Anthony opt out of his New York Knicks deal, he could take a similar path to the one chosen by Howard last July – eschew the flagship franchise that is flailing for the fourth-largest city in the country and a talented roster that, once Howard was in tow, won 54 games before being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Portland Trail Blazers.

There are five main tenets to their pitch, with always-aggressive Rockets general manager Daryl Morey leading the way.

1) Stability: Since Les Alexander bought the team in 1993, the Rockets have had just four coaches during that time and just two general managers since 1996. By comparison on the coaching front, only the Utah Jazz have had fewer coaches (three) and the San Antonio Spurs have also had four.

"The reason the West is so strong is because the owners are better," Morey told USA TODAY Sports. "I think the free agents are getting smarter and they're picking owners."

2) Success: Two championships (1994 and 1995) and 17 winning seasons in the 21 since Alexander bought the team. "When you play for the Rockets," Rockets CEO Tad Brown said, "you always are given every resource possible to be able to win. And that's coming directly from Leslie."

3) An urgency to win: Morey has long been known as one of the most active executives in the league, and he has no plans to change now. This is music to the ears of players who want to know their general manager is always working to improve the roster.

"We're always aggressive," Morey said. "That's just in our owner's makeup, whether it's adding Clyde (Drexler in 1995) to an already-championship team to adding (Charles) Barkley on a team (in 1996) that might have been just as good as their championship teams but came up short, to obviously doing moves for Tracy McGrady and then James Harden. Our owner has got aggressiveness in his DNA, and obviously I'm at the tip of his spear."

4) The China connection: Players looking to expand their personal brand in the world's largest country are well aware that the Rockets have had a corner on that market since the days of Yao Ming. "We're basically the de-facto national team of China," said Brown, who oversees that aspect of their operation. "People throughout Asia love our team. That started with Yao, and it continued with the great players that we've had. Every one of our games is broadcast in China and throughout Asia. We deliver a reach that is greater than any other team in the NBA, on a global scale."

5) Cold hard cash: Because there is no state income tax in Texas, playing for the Rockets (or the Dallas Mavericks or the Spurs) means players hold onto much more of their sizable paychecks. That won't help the Rockets in James' case, as Florida and Tennessee are the only other NBA states that also have no state income tax. But in New York, where Anthony resides, the state tax for people making over $1.02 million is 8.82%. This came into play in Howard's case, as he left approximately $30 million behind by leaving the Lakers (who could offer a five-year deal to the Rockets' four) but no longer had to pay California's 13.3% in state income taxes owed in his tax bracket.

As everyone in the Rockets' brass is quick to admit, these grand plans wouldn't be going so well if Howard hadn't chosen Houston a year ago.

"Dwight choosing here sort of represents the sea change in Houston, sort of proving that we're a Tier One destination for free agents," Morey said. "And obviously, we're going out there again and saying let's get one of these top guys again…I'd say the reasons he chose Houston are going to stay going forward."

Howard doesn't plan on recruiting James, Anthony, or any other soon-to-be free agent personally, instead choosing to respect their personal process while they decide their respective next steps. In those days before he chose Houston, he was so overwhelmed by the endless opinions and chaos around him that he boarded a plane for Aspen, Colorado just to clear his mind.

He knows James could take them to the top if he decided to come their way, and he never forgot the time so many years ago when Anthony said in a media interview that Howard was the one superstar with whom he would want to play. They'll be as hungry as him if they come, Howard is sure, but this decision must be theirs and theirs alone.

"A great man once told me that this is my plane, I fly it where I want to fly it, I'll land it where I want to land it," Howard said. "I built it, and it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. If I want people on that plane, I'll put them on there. If not, this is my plane. For 'Melo and all of these other free agents, this is their plane. This is their time to fly wherever they want to fly. They can't let anybody or anything get in the way of doing what's best for them."

GALLERY: James Harden through the years

After being the No. 3 option behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in his first three years with the Thunder, James Harden has broken out with the Rockets. Take a look back at some of the biggest moments of Harden's career so far. (Photo: Howard Smith, USA TODAY Sports)

After failing to reach an extension with the Thunder, Harden was traded in October 2012 to the Rockets. Four days after the trade, he signed a five-year, $80 million extension with Houston. (Photo: Pat Sullivan AP)